Even 30 years later, Don Davis still remembers being dispatched to his first mission for an overdue backpacker near Cameron Pass.

Davis, now the Larimer County Search and Rescue Team manager, had just joined the team and had been doing a winter training exercise up the Poudre Canyon before he his rescue teammates were redirected to the Michigan Lakes area on a report of a man who planned to hike for a week but hadn't returned to the designated meet-up point.

Davis and his team spent a full week involved in that search for the experienced German mountaineer. They located his snow camp and his food cache but were never able to find him, he recalled.

All of that was in the early 1980s, but the now-65-year-old SAR leader remembers it like it was yesterday. And likely every other responder on the nearly 100-person volunteer squad has a story to tell, too, he said.

"Team members always remember their first mission," Davis said. "They always remember their first death. And I think they remember their first child mission."

In just the past couple weeks, Larimer County Search and Rescue has responded in some capacity to nearly a dozen searches in the area, most of them resolved without major incident. Those calls are in addition to a busy spring that had crews responding to Longs Peak for rescue or recovery operations, along with multiple assistance calls near the Poudre River and in the Grey Rock area.

On average, the unpaid team is deployed to more than 70 calls each year across the county. Their responses send them everywhere from Rocky Mountain National Park to the far reaches of Larimer County near the Wyoming border on calls that can range from hikers lost in the woods to climbers trapped and injured on an expose rock face.

That's in addition to assisting in more large-scale events like September's floods or even a search for Space Shuttle Columbia debris in 2003.

"We don't judge a situation," Davis said, referring to some that tilt more toward the humor side of the spectrum — like the teen who ended up at a restaurant last weekend — rather than the tragic body recovery operations. "We just respond."

They do so for free.

While a helicopter rescue flight or an ambulance ride could get pricey without adequate insurance, Davis stressed the highly skilled members are always eager to help. It helps them keep their skills sharp, which is vital when it comes to being peer-reviewed by other teams across the country, like they were earlier this year. Members have different specialties, ranging from dog handling to advanced tracking to technical rope rescues.

More importantly, the longer people wait before calling for help, the more dangerous a situation can get, he said. Search teams often fight the misconception that calling a search team will cost the missing person or the reporting party.

"The search and rescue community as a whole is against charging because people will be afraid to call," he said.

That element of surprise and of not knowing what each mission will bring is part of the draw, he said. It's why Davis, a former flat-lander from Ohio, and so many others joined in the first place: to blend a love of the outdoors with the passion for helping others when they're rarely more scared.

Though he now plays a more behind-the-scenes role on missions, Davis continues to host clinics across the region and occasionally instructs wilderness survival classes to try to keep people safe when they venture into the backcountry.

And with every class, search or casual conversation, you can bet he'll have a story. As will anyone on the team, for that matter.

Larimer County Search & Rescue is a separate and self-governed entity that operates in conjunction with Larimer County Emergency Services. When someone is reported overdue from a hike or injured in the backcountry, dispatchers and a team of four Emergency Services workers determine whether a SAR response is needed. Missing parties will never be charged for a search, and most cases are resolved without incident across the county. For more information, go to larimercountysar.org.